53" Panny... struggling with darkness... (1 Viewer)

[Leif Wall]

I've had my 53" Panasonic widescreen for about a year and a half now. Was used just for dvd up until about a week ago when I finally got HD via Dish Network.

I've been to the panny.tv site and learned how to tweak my set. I've eyeballed my grayscale, fixed my geometry, fix my convergance every so often, e-focus, m-focus, and set up the display settings using Avia.

I use a Panasonic RP82 for a dvd player and use Monster 3 Component video cables.

After doing an A-B comparison with the movie 'The Sweetest Thing' on dvd and HBO HD last night, dvds just seem WAY WAY WAY to dark. I'm losing tons of details in shadows and it just plain looks murky. I use to think this dvd looked good when I first watched it.

According to Avia my brightness level should be at about 42. Even when bumped up to 50 (out of 63) it's still just too dark to look at. I have my brightness at 45-46 for HD and it seems perfect. No loss of detail and everything looks SUPERB.

But dvd... arghh...

Any advice, suggestions?

 

[Andy Goldstein]

is there a setting on the dvd player for brightness (or whatever they might call it)? my settings are quite close between dvd and hd cable, around 30. i set mine with DVE.

ag.

 

[Jon_Gregory]

Yes, check to see if your dvd player has a dim function in it. I know mine has a "dim for movies" option on it that will dim the brightness of the movie. I use this function because I usually watch a movie with all the lights off and it seems too bright when on my original brightness level for regular tv watching. And I also know that my 53 panny changes the setting for each input. For example, when I am on my cable input it switches to standard and when I watch a dvd (component input) it switches to cinema automatically. Take a look at a few things and let us know.

 

[Rajeev_s]

What is your color matrix (not sure about the name) set to in your TV menu for DVD ? Set it to HD or SD and see if that helps.